The best things in tech have all been fueled by... war. All. Of. Them.
I can't imagine what kind of incredible technology we'd have if our government didn't waste such a tremendous amount of money on war. These "best things" are just the unintentional, sad leftovers.
This is a good thing for the economy. We'll finally collect the taxes that Internet companies have been skirting for years. Companies that can't or won't devote the resources to paying their taxes properly should be shut down and the owners should be prosecuted. It's shameful that the government has allowed such an unfair playing field for so long. Competent small businesses can and will continue to thrive.
You can put your homemade gourmet popcorn, or clipboard app, or photography for sale on the "internet" and people all over the world can buy it.
You still have to follow the laws. You cannot simply refuse to collect and pay sales tax because... Internet! If you can't figure it out, then don't do it. We've been doing it successfully (and legally) for years, and we're a tiny company.
It's not that complicated. We've been shipping all over the US and collecting and remitting sales tax correctly for years. It's a simple plug-in on our e-commerce site. International is more complicated, and more problem-prone, so we don't do it. International sales have more complicated tax and customs and shipping rules, and opens us to more fraud. It's a simple business decision. You're welcome to make your own!
Dude, if you can't figure it out, then you shouldn't be in business. It's not the government's job to hold your hand and show you how to run your business. That's not how it works in the US, at least.
that doesn't unfairly punish small businesses or make it disproportionately difficult for them to engage in business.
It doesn't. Businesses have to be aware of the tax laws in the areas where they're operating. If you want to open a store, you probably have one tax district. If you want to sell to everybody in the US, you have thousands of tax districts. I don't understand where the idea comes from that this is somehow "unfair".
Our sales tax is paid monthly. But, a few dozen, probably. We just let the software do it for us. I honestly haven't checked in a few months. That's how much of a burden it is.
Eh. Yeah, the government could make it easier. But, in the meantime, what we have is what we have, and if a company wants to benefit of being able to sell to people outside of their immediate area, they should pay whatever the cost is of doing business. We do it. We're a tiny company. It's not a big deal [shrug].
If you sell 5,000 distinct products to 5,000 jurisdictions, how much time does it take you to run through the 25 million (product, jurisdiction) tuples?
Probably a few man hours. But if you've got 5000 items that you sell to 5000 jurisdictions, the time should be negligible. It's certainly not impossible.
Because TaxCloud hasn't been doing enough to make the existence of its service known to the public.
It's impractical, or perhaps even impossible, for someone like Amazon to get it right
Why do you say this? You think that the largest retailer on the planet can sell (tens of? hundreds of ?) millions of different items, but can't keep track of a few thousand tax codes? That doesn't seem to make any sense.
If you can't figure out how to properly pay taxes, then you don't have a viable business.
Try going to your local tax office as an individual and say, "I didn't pay my property taxes because I couldn't figure out how to do it." and see how far that gets you.
That's between eBay and the "seller". I don't know or care how they work it out. Ebay is a massive company with billions in assets. I'm sure they can figure it out. I work for a small brick-and-mortar and ecommerce business and we worked it out pretty easily.
Because the brick-and-mortar store only has to send the collected funds to single (possibly a few) taxing bodies: i.e. the one where the store is located. Online sellers would have to collect and send money to thousands of taxing bodies.
I don't know when I became the arbiter of sales taxes, but if you're asking my opinion, yes, if a foreign entity sells stuff in the US, then yes, they should have to pay the appropriate taxes.
And yes, if a US company is selling things in foreign companies, they should pay the appropriate local taxes.
Are they the ones who are supposed to handle calculating state and local sales taxes and getting that money to thousands of taxing jurisdictions?
I'm not a judge, but if they're collecting the money, I would call them the sellers, and I would say, yes, it's their responsibility to collect and pay sales taxes as appropriate.
But, that's irrelevant. Organizations or individuals who are selling in different tax districts need to collect and pay taxes in those districts.
eBay, etsy, and Amazon can have millions of items for sale, and millions of customers, but can't keep track of a few thousand tax jurisdictions? That's bullshit.
There are plenty of services that do it already. We like Taxcloud.com. A quick Google pulls up quite a few more.
Good! This is what people with morals are supposed to do. Now, if only we could have the same thing happen in our military, too, the world would be in a lot better shape.
If I'm going to eat garbage microwave food in front of a fucking TV, I'll just eat at home. I don't understand why anybody would go to these kinds of places.
Not only is figuring out the correct amount of tax to collect difficult, but keeping records of taxes collected and remitting them to the proper location would also prove to be a major issue.
No, it's super easy. Try a Google. There are plenty of services that collect and remit sales tax for a business.
We've had newsgroups and email lists that have been 100% free since the start of the Internet. 25ish years later, people are PAYING for these same services, AND are giving the service 100% of their personal data. Wow. You've come a long way, baby!
I don't know why you'd jump to "censorship and control". The obvious reason is that there's an abundance of nastiness on the Internet that the regular person simply cannot handle. The government is trying to protect the dummies from it, because they're easily tricked. I don't see the European governments as being as malicious as you seem to make them out to be.
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The best things in tech have all been fueled by ... war. All. Of. Them.
I can't imagine what kind of incredible technology we'd have if our government didn't waste such a tremendous amount of money on war. These "best things" are just the unintentional, sad leftovers.
This is a good thing for the economy. We'll finally collect the taxes that Internet companies have been skirting for years. Companies that can't or won't devote the resources to paying their taxes properly should be shut down and the owners should be prosecuted. It's shameful that the government has allowed such an unfair playing field for so long. Competent small businesses can and will continue to thrive.
You can put your homemade gourmet popcorn, or clipboard app, or photography for sale on the "internet" and people all over the world can buy it.
You still have to follow the laws. You cannot simply refuse to collect and pay sales tax because... Internet! If you can't figure it out, then don't do it. We've been doing it successfully (and legally) for years, and we're a tiny company.
It's not that complicated. We've been shipping all over the US and collecting and remitting sales tax correctly for years. It's a simple plug-in on our e-commerce site. International is more complicated, and more problem-prone, so we don't do it. International sales have more complicated tax and customs and shipping rules, and opens us to more fraud. It's a simple business decision. You're welcome to make your own!
Dude, if you can't figure it out, then you shouldn't be in business. It's not the government's job to hold your hand and show you how to run your business. That's not how it works in the US, at least.
that doesn't unfairly punish small businesses or make it disproportionately difficult for them to engage in business.
It doesn't. Businesses have to be aware of the tax laws in the areas where they're operating. If you want to open a store, you probably have one tax district. If you want to sell to everybody in the US, you have thousands of tax districts. I don't understand where the idea comes from that this is somehow "unfair".
Why would a business with less than a million dollars of annual (revenue?) be selling to every city in the world? That doesn't sound viable.
Our sales tax is paid monthly. But, a few dozen, probably. We just let the software do it for us. I honestly haven't checked in a few months. That's how much of a burden it is.
Eh. Yeah, the government could make it easier. But, in the meantime, what we have is what we have, and if a company wants to benefit of being able to sell to people outside of their immediate area, they should pay whatever the cost is of doing business. We do it. We're a tiny company. It's not a big deal [shrug].
No, we don't ship internationally. It's too complicated.
If you sell 5,000 distinct products to 5,000 jurisdictions, how much time does it take you to run through the 25 million (product, jurisdiction) tuples?
Probably a few man hours. But if you've got 5000 items that you sell to 5000 jurisdictions, the time should be negligible. It's certainly not impossible.
Because TaxCloud hasn't been doing enough to make the existence of its service known to the public.
Huh?
It's impractical, or perhaps even impossible, for someone like Amazon to get it right
Why do you say this? You think that the largest retailer on the planet can sell (tens of? hundreds of ?) millions of different items, but can't keep track of a few thousand tax codes? That doesn't seem to make any sense.
Why do you think that keeping lists of taxable items and jurisdictions is such a difficult task?
And, why not just use a sales tax service, like TaxCloud to take care of it all for you for $10/month?
If you can't figure out how to properly pay taxes, then you don't have a viable business.
Try going to your local tax office as an individual and say, "I didn't pay my property taxes because I couldn't figure out how to do it." and see how far that gets you.
That's between eBay and the "seller". I don't know or care how they work it out. Ebay is a massive company with billions in assets. I'm sure they can figure it out. I work for a small brick-and-mortar and ecommerce business and we worked it out pretty easily.
Because the brick-and-mortar store only has to send the collected funds to single (possibly a few) taxing bodies: i.e. the one where the store is located. Online sellers would have to collect and send money to thousands of taxing bodies.
... and your point is...?
I don't know when I became the arbiter of sales taxes, but if you're asking my opinion, yes, if a foreign entity sells stuff in the US, then yes, they should have to pay the appropriate taxes.
And yes, if a US company is selling things in foreign companies, they should pay the appropriate local taxes.
I haven't heard a valid argument otherwise.
Are they the ones who are supposed to handle calculating state and local sales taxes and getting that money to thousands of taxing jurisdictions?
I'm not a judge, but if they're collecting the money, I would call them the sellers, and I would say, yes, it's their responsibility to collect and pay sales taxes as appropriate.
But, that's irrelevant. Organizations or individuals who are selling in different tax districts need to collect and pay taxes in those districts.
The US military, today, primarily exists to kill people in other countries and to make money for the defense contractors. What do you think it does?
eBay, etsy, and Amazon can have millions of items for sale, and millions of customers, but can't keep track of a few thousand tax jurisdictions? That's bullshit.
There are plenty of services that do it already. We like Taxcloud.com. A quick Google pulls up quite a few more.
Good! This is what people with morals are supposed to do. Now, if only we could have the same thing happen in our military, too, the world would be in a lot better shape.
If I'm going to eat garbage microwave food in front of a fucking TV, I'll just eat at home. I don't understand why anybody would go to these kinds of places.
Not only is figuring out the correct amount of tax to collect difficult, but keeping records of taxes collected and remitting them to the proper location would also prove to be a major issue.
No, it's super easy. Try a Google. There are plenty of services that collect and remit sales tax for a business.
We've had newsgroups and email lists that have been 100% free since the start of the Internet. 25ish years later, people are PAYING for these same services, AND are giving the service 100% of their personal data. Wow. You've come a long way, baby!
I don't know why you'd jump to "censorship and control". The obvious reason is that there's an abundance of nastiness on the Internet that the regular person simply cannot handle. The government is trying to protect the dummies from it, because they're easily tricked. I don't see the European governments as being as malicious as you seem to make them out to be.